Austrian vineyards

Whilst quality was evidently high, volumes in the adjoining Danube regions of Wachau, Kremstal, Kamptal and Traisenthal were down about 30% in the two key varietals – grüner veltliner  and riesling.  Indeed Mathias Hirtzberger of Weingut Franz Hirtzberger said “we had only 40% of our normal riesling harvest for Singerriedel [vineyard site], and we’ve sold out”.

Roman Horvath MW, the managing director of Domäne Wachau said “2009 was a great vintage in Wachau and the neighbouring regions. We had strong rainfall at end of September which caused a ‘bad’ botrytis infection. But as the most western wine region, the grapes here were not as soft as elsewhere, so we did not have such a big loss. We had more time to work in the vineyard.”

Also in the Wachau, Leo Alzinger of Weingut Alzinger added “2009 was not easy because of the rainfall in mid-September. Both good and bad botrytis started, and we had to select out the good from the bad.”  This took some effort. Where they normally harvest 60kg/hour, in 2009 Alzinger harvested at a rate of just 5kg/hour. But Alzinger said “it’s very good quality.” As you’d hope after all that effort.

Horvath added “it’s a very balanced year, and more concentrated than 2008. If people worked well in vineyard, there is a pure, precise fruit expression.”  This theme was picked up by Maria Angeles Castellanos-Hiedler of Weingut Hiedler in the Kamptal who said the vintage showed great “purity and juiciness of fruit. There was no botrytis in 2009. There was lots of sunlight, giving pure fruits and fine minerality.”

Wachau vineyards

That rain at flowering was an issue, reducing the crop. Hiedler continued “the wind and rain began at the end of May, beginning of June. It was bad for quantity, but good for quality because [the poor flower fertilisation] resulted in loose bunches which then concentrated their fruit flavours.”

Fellow Kamptal vintner Johannes Hirsch of Weingut Hirsch picked up the rainy theme, but added “2009 finished with super healthy fruit in mid-October, which is normal. We never had so perfect riesling, and the grüner veltliners are fine and minerally. We didn’t expect this after the rainiest June in 200 years.”

On the opposite side of the Danube from Kamptal, Markus Huber of Weingut Huber in Traisental said “2009 was one of the best vintages in the last ten years. A cool growing season with low yields resulted in concentrated grapes. Physiological ripeness was quite late and there is enough acidity to balance the richness.”  

Kamptal vineyards

A little further east along the Danube, heading towards Vienna lies Wagram, less completely focused on grüner veltliner  and riesling, but still accounting for a worthy amount of production. Here there was less rainfall in September than further west, but the June rain was still “something like a flood” according to Franz Leth, of Weingut Leth, when “160mm of rain fell in three days.  Hailstorms in the beginning of August, followed by three weeks of very hot weather made 2009 a vintage of weather extremes.”

But, Leth added “we were luckier than western areas of Danube, because we had little rainfall in September, so it was not such hard work selecting in the vineyard.” But volumes are still down around 30% in Wagram. 

Despite the periodic rains, Willhelm Hamm, director of the wine estate, Weingut Stift Klosterneuburg, also in Wagram was optimistic, saying “from mid July to end Oct we had most beautiful weather you could imagine. We had a long vegetative period and therefore long hang time, and we didn’t have extremely high temperatures above 32 to 33°C. “

The June rains may have reduced the flowering and thus the yield across the regions of the river Danube, but such  a yield reduction this early in the season means top producers don’t have to do so much green harvesting in later months. The looser bunches that resulted were nicely aerated, and fruit flavours subsequently concentrated. Growers spoke of vineyard work and very high quality wines.

Brief tasting highlights of the 2009 vintage. May 2010, at Vievinum in Vienna.

General, for both grüner veltliner and riesling at this level.

• All these are excellent wines, with unjustly brief notes.
• Just a couple from each producer
• Silkiness and persistence of texture throughout;
• Elegance and lightness of deportment allied with sometimes amazing depth and density.

Wachau

Weingut Alzinger, Grüner Veltliner Mühlpoint Smaragd, 2009, Wachau
Spicy with fresh/dry combo. Has weight and definition, long, strong, elegant stony palate. purity and spiciness.

Weingut Alzinger, Riesling Loibenberg Smaragd, 2009, Wachau
Apricot and citrus density, fresh, aromatic spices in a lush/fresh combo. Laser precision.

Weingut Franz Hirtzberger, Grüner Veltliner  Rotes Tor Smaragd, 2009, Wachau
Cream/spice combo, great weight and flavour intensity. Long

Weingut Franz Hirtzberger,  Riesling Hochrain Smaragd, 2009, Wachau
Crisp citrus fruit, apricot, precision with youthful energy and weight.

Weingut F. X Pichler, Grüner Veltliner  Loibnerberg Smaragd 2009, Wachau
Fresh-cream, soft pepperiness, fresh and integrated

Weingut F. X Pichler, Riesling Loibnerberg Smaragd 2009, Wachau
Immediate lushness, purity and definition, density and length.

Weingut Veyder-Malberg, Grüner Veltliner  Hochrain 2009, Wachau
Citrus cream-spice. Palate opulence, depth, purity and length.   

Weingut Veyder-Malberg, Riesling Buschenberg 2009, Wachau
Peach and apricot, lush-dry combo, dense flavour with stunning depth and early complexity.

Domäne Wachau, Grüner Veltliner Kaiserberg Federspiel 2009, Wachau
(federspiel = lighter style). Citrus pith then white pepper, clean and defined. Light and refreshing, with attractive substance.

Domäne Wachau, Riesling Achleiten Smaragd, 2009, Wachau
Stone fruits and stoniness, tight/dry combo with fruit density, focus, deportment and long finish.

Kamptal

Weingut Willi Bründlmayer, Grüner Veltliner  Käferberg 2009, Kamptal Reserve DAC, Erste Lage 
(reserve style) Fresh, creamy, density, rich and dry with soft spice pepper.

Weingut Willi Bründlmayer, Riesling Heiligenstein 2009, Kamptal Reserve DAC, Erste Lage 
(reserve style) Tropical and citrus, juicy and blossoming, dry/lush combo.

Weingut Hiedler, Grüner Veltliner Thal 2009, Kamptal Reserve DAC, Erste Lage
(reserve style) Soft, spicy lift, then fresh with a fat-dry combo; layered pepper and pith, dense and long.

Weingut Hiedler, Riesling Gaisberg 2009, Kamptal Reserve DAC, Erste Lage
(reserve style) Limey pith, citrus weight and purity. Focus and balance. juicy and immediately delicious.

Weingut Hirsch, Riesling Zöbing 2009, Kamptal DAC
(Lighter style) Lighter style. lime juiciness, energetic in its vibrant youth.

Weingut Hirsch, Riesling Zöbinger Heiligenstein 2009, Kamptal DAC, Erste Lage
(reserve style) Citrus pith, aromatic tropical spices, density and volume in the mouth.

Weingut Schloss Gobelsburg, Grüner Veltliner Gobelsburger 2009, Kamptal DAC
(lighter style). Fresh, light, lemon-cream; intense floral and pepper.

Weingut Schloss Gobelsburg, Riesling Heiligenstein 2009, Kamptal Reserve DAC, Erste Lage
(reserve style). Piquant aromatic spice, tropical fruit, dense and perky prickle on tongue; deft and complex.

Traisental

Weingut Markus Huber, Grüner Veltliner Obere Steigen 2009, Traisental DAC
(lighter style). light, peppery, citrus pith, attractive pepperiness with nice bit of fat.

Weingut Markus Huber, Riesling Berg 2009, Traisental Reserve DAC, Erste Lage
(reserve style) Rich, tropical/fresh combo, lime notes, round and long.

Grüner veltliner is Austria’s flagship white grape variety, and to give some idea of its quality and ageing potential, the very best have beaten Burgundian chardonnays in blind tasting assessments of quality. 

Steep Wachau vineyards

Grüner veltliner covers about a third of Austria’s entire vineyard area.  But because Austria is a niche producer – the whole country produces only three-quarters what Champagne produces – it can be a challenge finding the wines in the UK. And because they’re such great food wines, it may even be easier to find them in restaurants, mid-market and posher.

What to expect? Firstly, a bit like chardonnay, it comes in many different guises, from a light bodied aperitif style, to a full-blown, full-bodied, give-me-some-serious-food style, which can age for decades. It’s this latter style that competes so effectively against white Burgundy. 

The classic lighter-bodied interpretation of the aperitif style is of white pepper, with a peppery-spice note. The acidity is fresh, but not as zesty as sauvignon blanc or as racy as riesling and there can be a bit more weight than aperitif sauvignon blancs and rieslings. The styles go all the way up to full bodied, which take on a honeysuckle, even baked honey note, with a fatter, creamy texture of body, rich aromatic spices and concentrated peach or apricot fruit. There’s not usually any overt oaky influence in any style.

Most grüner veltliner is grown in Lower Austria – Niederösterreich.  Get used to this name because it will appear on more Austrian wine bottles in line with some new wine laws they’ve brought in. Niederösterreich has about 27,000 hectares of vineyards: still pretty niche by winemaking standards – it’s less than one quarter the size of the Bordeaux vineyards. Within Niederösterreich, the best grüner veltliners come from regions along the Danube, about an hour west of Vienna, so in easy striking distance from the rigours of the urban cultural environment.  The Kamptal, Kremstal and Wachau all produce really good examples. As with Burgundy, single vineyard wines, not just grüner veltliner  but riesling too, are the norm.  Which makes the niche production even more micro-scale.

Domäne Wachau

For as good an introduction as any to this grape variety, try the readily available Felsner from Waitrose.  The other examples are a few pegs more serious: extra weight, complexity, spice, concentration of fruit, a more seamless texture, longer lasting flavour.  They’re all cracking wines.

Both Noel Young and Nick Dobson have large ranges of Austrian wines, not just grüner veltliner.  So often it is a case of once tried, forever smitten.

www.nickdobsonwines.co.uk: Weingut Hirsch, Grüner Veltliner Lamm 2006, Kamptal, £17.80
Noel Young Wines: Kurt Angerer Gruner Veltliner ‘Loam’ 2006, Kamptal  £15.65
Waitrose: Domäne Wachau, Grüner Veltliner Achleiten Smaragd 2007, Wachau £15.99
Waitrose: Felsner Grüner Veltliner Moosburgerin 2008 Kremstal  £8.99

In a 2002 tasting overseen by Jancis Robinson MW, grüner veltliner notably beat all-comer chardonnays into third place (even that chardonnay was Austrian). The top Burgundy in the event got 18^th slot.

Kamptal

As with other high quality white grape varieties such as chardonnay and riesling, grüner veltliner can be made in a range of styles, from light-bodied, simple, quaffing wine, to the seriously concentrated, rich and full-blooded (even for a white wine). The latter invariably have a degree or two more alcohol than the former. 

Alcohol is a preservative, so this may have some part to play in bottle longevity. Though some long-lived German rieslings have less than 10% alcohol (but perhaps compensate with alternative preservative, residual sugar.)

New oak rarely features with grüner veltliner. Though its tannins might provide some preserving influence, the dominant flavour of new oak is evidently thought to be too much for the relatively aromatic grüner veltliner variety.

Pre-fermentation skin maceration is another point of discussion and Willi Bründlmayer, of his eponymous estate in Kamptal, suggested the extraction of too many phenolics might detract from longevity in bottle.  He said: “I prefer whole bunch pressing with ripe grüner veltliner. I don’t like overloaded wines but ones with discreet, subdued personality and elegance. Oak fermentation is possible but not necessary for great grüner veltliner; personally I like larger acacia casks which are good for maturing on fine lees.”    

As with riesling, the malo-lactic fermentation is usually blocked on grüner veltliner.  During a tasting of aged grüner veltliners on an Institute of Masters of Wine (IMW) trip to Austria in 2002, Michi Moosbrugger of Schloss Gobelsburg, also in Kamptal, said “we tried a small proportion of malo in 1997, an excellent vintage with early flowering and a long summer, to see, but we didn’t like the results for several years.” Five years later they liked it more, but Moosbrugger added, you “lose very many elements that are seen as typical aspects of grüner veltliner  – the varietal character changes and it goes to an international style.”

Steep Wachau slopes

A further issue for longevity is whether to use a proportion of fruit affected with ‘good botrytis’, as in noble rot, rather than the rotting-to-mouldy-mush grey botrytis which results from too much damp and rain as berries are nearing ripeness. Bründlmayer said during the 2002 IMW tasting he believed “grüner veltliner with botrytis does not age so well. It makes the evolution of the wine dangerous” without expanding on how, but a certain type of rusticity is said to evolve. 

Sepp Mantler of Mantlerhof in Kremstal agreed with the point about botrytis, adding they were “showing wines from one vineyard (Spiegel), from years with no botrytis, and only good years.”

Today, both a lighter style (lighter bodied, lighter in alcohol – 11-12%) and a denser, richer style (more body, more vinosity, more alcohol – 13.5-14.5%) of grüner veltliner are made, as well as in-between styles.  At the 2002 IMW tasting, it was noticed that several of the older wines, from the 1960s and 1970s, were made in the lighter style, picking early to avoid high phenolics and high alcohol, which also meant acidities were a bit higher.  The more recent style is for later harvest, greater ripeness with the concomitant higher alcohol and lower acidity.

Some of these lighter-styled grüner veltliners showed really well. The 1979 grüner veltliner  from Lenz Moser, (2002 tasting) with 11.8% alcohol, had taken on toast, brioche and lanolin characters that might equally have described an aged Australian Semillon or an aged white Burgundy. It was well balanced with a silky texture and an elegance without power, which would concord with the alcohol level.

Similarly, Salomon’s 1987 grüner veltliner Undhof Wieden (2002 tasting) was still showing attractive tightness and linearity of structure, with great youth of citrus and white pepper spiciness. All this with just 12% alcohol.

Gobelsburg’s 1987 grüner veltliner ‘Cabinet’ (2002 tasting)  in the lighter style – 11.8% alcohol – still showed amazing freshness for a lighter style; it had developed the by now familiar toasty nose, but was also taking on a faint savoury and slightly metallic character. Perhaps a limit of ageing for the lighter styles exists.

These two 1987s showed well despite it being a late vintage of average quality, lying in the shadow of both 1985 and 1986.

Schloss Gobelsburg’s 1967 grüner veltliner from the slopes of Gaisberg, (2002 tasting), with 12.4%, was a remarkable wine, both delicious and elegant, though these two are obviously not mutually exclusive. Dense fruit, with tobacco and dry, honeyed, toast notes created a lovely balance with some fresh biscuity flavours coming through.

Generally though, it was the richer, more unctuous styles, still perceptively dry, that came into their own with some age, at both the IMW tasting, and at the Austrian Wine Summit during 2009, where international specialists in the wine sector are invited on detailed tours by the Austrian Wine Marketing organisation. 

Mantlerhof’s Spiegel grüner veltliner from 1977, (2002 tasting) with a hint of residual sugar in its richer style was a honeyed, rich, dense wine, but still supple, with a silky texture, luscious-yet-dry tropical and yellow fruits. The deep golden colour belied its youth, and indeed colour of wine proved to be no predictor of age or potential.

Bründlmayer’s  Loiser Berg from 1975 (2002 tasting) was remarkably fresh, with just 11.5%, honeyed and silky, and very nicely balanced. His 1969 Kirchengarten, with 13.5% was toasty, with lanolin notes, rich, dense, sweet fruit and beautiful balance, density and concentration, combining elegance and power with subtlety and harmony.

Aged grüner veltliner tasting line up

In the 2009 tasting, Bründlmayer’s grüner veltliner  Lamm 1995, also showed prowess, with a steely, cream and lemon toast on the nose and attack. Non-fruity notes were developing on the medium-bodied palate. The intensity and still-freshening acidity gave the wine a refined and powerful demeanour. A wine of elegance, structure and refinement. For his ageing goals on grüner veltliner, Bründlmayer said: “there is no single component to be responsible for ‘matureability’ but a rich character without predominance of acidity, tannins, alcohol or whatever, and enough ‘hidden potential’ to make a maturing process worthwhile.”

The Alzinger grüner veltliner Reserve 2001, from eastern Wachau, was another star from the 2009 tasting. The Reserve is a blend of more than one vineyard. The wine showed no real evidence of any age, and its 14.5% alcohol was perfectly integrated.  Aromas and flavours were of apple, baked, citrus, dry honey and steel.  A creamy hint was developing on the palate, which had a lovely balance, both intense and concentrated, with a finish to linger over. 

Another wine showing no signs of age was Proidl’s grüner veltliner Ehrenfels 1999, from Kremstal. A lemon yellow colour gave was to citrus and intense yellow fruits exploding on the mid-palate. This was a very youthful wine still with its primary fruit spectrum, and showing an amazing freshness and length.

Nikolaihof’s grüner veltliner Vinothek 1991, from Wachau deserves special mention. These guys are pretty unique. This wine was aged in big old casks for 15 years, only being bottled in 2006, so this is something of a cask-aged/bottle-aged hybrid, and completely delightful for that. They’re also biodynamic.  The wine had notes of steel, honeysuckle, and something almost petrol-like. It showed baked lemon on the reasonably light bodied palate (just 12.5% in this wine), along with a linearity rather than explosive mid-palate. Still no real signs of ageing, but an elegant, subtle wine, that lingered almost in the imagination.  

These sorts of tastings throw up far more questions than they can ever answer. But it is a privilege to be involved with them, and it’s a great intellectual and hedonistic pursuit. Not least because it’s estimated that 95% of grüner veltliner is drunk within three years of the harvest.

Ten to fifteen years seems like a reasonable band for the ageing of the best of these wines, which is probably as much as you’d expect for most white wines, though there were one or two extraordinary examples of note that were older than this.

Lower Austria is the country’s biggest and most diverse group of wine regions, clustered in the north-east corner of the country, and accounting for over 60% of the country’s vineyard area.  It is most important for white grape varieties such as grüner veltliner and riesling, the best of which rival the top, longest-lived, most highly respected dry white wines in the world.

Wachau, Kremstal and Kamptal

Terraced vineyards

The trinity of Wachau, Kremstal and Kamptal, at the western extremity of vine cultivation in Austria, close to the banks of the river Danube, and just one hour west of Vienna, is the origin for most of these globally celebrated wines, the pinnacle of which are dry, rich, concentrated and tautly defined wines of precision and place.

These three sub-regions comprise 7,500 ha between them, just 15% of Austria’s vineyard plantings.

The climate here is dry, and continental, with long cool autumns. Conditions uniquely combine to create consummate wine-growing potential. Warm winds blow from the Pannonian plain in the east. Some of these are funnelled up the river Danube to the eastern reaches of the Wachau, their influence waning westwards as they lose pace. Virtually all the vineyards in these areas are on the northern bank of the Danube, to catch maximum sunlight exposure during the growing season, and in places, especially in the Wachau, vineyards are precipitous and terraced, thanks to the work of the church in previous times, evidence of the centuries-long history of vine cultivation in Austria. The terraces add further motes of warmth by re-radiating the sun’s heat.

The Pannonian influence is strongest up to the eastern parts of Wachau, at Durnstein, where Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned.  Just beyond the town, the Danube turns sharply southward, blocking the warm Pannonian air.  It gets progressively cooler going west. As a result, wines from eastern Wachau can be more opulent, a little richer and more powerful than those to the west. At the western end, in Spitz, the meso-climate is wetter and cooler, almost 3°C cooler than at Loiben in the east of the region, and the wines more finely structured and minerally, with an almost exotic note. 

Cool afternoon mountain winds come down from the Waldviertal, north of the region which enables grapes to retain natural acidity while allowing full, spicy, ripeness to be achieved. Aspect and precise location have a discernible influence on the wines.

Most Wachau producers are part of the Vinea Wachau group, the roots of which date to a 13^th century land classification. The aim of the group is to safeguard the origin and improve the quality of their wines, which are all dry and are categorised according to style:

• steinfeder is the lightest in weight and alcohol (11%),
• federspiel of middling weight and
• smaragd the richest, most full-bodied style and with alcohol about 13%. Smaragd wines are named after the green lizards which come out to bask in the sunshine on the vineyard terraces.

It is usually the full-bodied smaragd style where the pinnacle of quality and longevity is found.  Rudi Pichler, of his eponymous estate said “to show terroir, you need a single vineyard. Single vineyards are normally destined for smaragd quality, therefore, the best quality is usually the smaragd style”. Hirtzberger’s Singerriedel Riesling Smaragd with density, freshness, intensity and concentration is surely one of the most sought-after wines in the entire valley.

The exemplary co-operative, Domäne Wachau, makes some excellent quality and good value riesling and grüner veltliner from single vineyard sites, and other producers to splash out on for a revelatory Wachau experience include Leo Alzinger, Emmerich Knoll, FX Pichler and Prager.

Picturesque slopes

Sandwiched between the Wachau and Kamptal, is Kremstal, with vineyards on either side of Danube tributary, the river Krems. Vineyards here are located on the world’s third largest loess terrace which extends about six kilometres from Krems to Gedersdorf (the largest is in China, and the second largest is the famed Kaiserstuhl vineyard in Germany).  Riesling gives way to grüner veltliner as the dominant variety here.

Grüner veltliner grapes ripen fairly late, so it prefers cool nights to achieve perfect acid balance with alcohol and aromatic expression. It is another variety that expresses its terroir or site, and is at its best on primary rock with fertile top soil of either loess or shale origin, so this region provides some good examples. It has a spicy, smoky character with distinctive white pepper notes. Its fruit character ranges from citrus to rich, peachy and apricot flavours. Martin Nigl of his eponymous winery explained the diversity of styles with this grape variety: “there are three styles of grüner veltliner: a fresh, young style, the ‘golden middle’ with enough freshness and enough concentration so it can be an aperitif or go with a meal, and the concentrated style” which is a real food wine.   

Centred on the town of Langenlois, a little further east from Kremstal, lies Kamptal, where the reputation for grüner veltliner is second to none. This is home to the iconic Willi Bründlmayer estate, and to numerous other top producers such as Schloss Gobelsburg, Hiedler and Hirsch.

The climate is a little drier, and the wines a little broader and richer than the Wachau. During the day, warm air from the southern plain of the Danube flows up the valley of the river Kamp while by night, a cool breeze from the Waldviertel blows over the vineyards and terraces down the valley. Geology remains important as a quality driver. Micky Moosbrugger, of Schloss Gobelsburg explained: “the most important soils are 280 million years old – brown, amphibolites, mica, schist. This is the basement of the whole Danube area through the Wachau, Krems and Kamptal areas. In Kamptal, there is a geological island at Gobelsburg, where alpine glacial deposits formed a croupe of big gravels, and another geological island at Heiligenstein, of Permian rock, sandstone and gneiss.”  The Heiligenstein has a reputation of almost mythical proportion.  An early mention in 1280 suggests it was a mountain on which the sun ‘burns like hell’ (or Hellenstein).

Langenlois is something of vinous mecca, and the Loisium opened in 2003 amid the vineyards, a futuristically shiny block of a wine visitor’s centre.

Wienviertal

Weinviertal turbines on the horizon

Staying north of the Danube, the Wienviertal borders the Czech Republic and Slovakia.  With 16,000 ha, it is Austria’s most extensive vineyard region – a large expanse of rolling countryside with mixed agriculture interspersed with vineyards. Elegant wind farms stand above wheat and sunflower fields.

The region is making a name for itself by being the first to adopt a system of origin called DAC (Districtus Austria Controllatus). The philosophy of this voluntary system is to create a link between a variety and a region, where the chosen variety shows a typical style of wine for the region. So DAC Wienviertal is for grüner veltliner, which covers 50% of the region’s vineyard plantings.  Many other grape varieties are grown but the idea is to focus on one variety for the DAC. Thus it offers consumers a consistent style of wine which is representative of the region.  In this case DAC grüner veltliner should be fruity, spicy, peppery and dry with no wood influence and a minimum of 12% alcohol. 

Both inside and outside of the DAC system, the big names to look out for include Graf Hardegg, Pfaffl, Weinrieder and Zull.

Thermenregion and Carnuntum

South of the river and heading south of Vienna are Thermenregion and Carnuntum.  Carnuntum’s leading light is Markowitsch with both his reds and whites, and whilst the region grows mostly white wines from grüner veltliner, weissburgunder (pinot blanc) and chardonnay, it is the reds that are worth watching.

Thermenregion, region of spas, is making a niche for itself with rotgipfler and zierfandler. These are two elusive white grape varieties that are worth searching out, though with just 100 ha of each planted, it may be something of a labour of love. Around the spa town of Baden there’s a long south east facing slope of gentle gradient, which brings to mind the Côte d’Or, running towards the historic village of Gumpoldskirchen, and it is in this area that the grape varieties thrive.

Rotgipfler is not red (’rot’), but takes its name from its red-tipped shoots. It likes warm hillside locations like those around Gumpoldskirchen.  Both it and zierfandler can be made from dry to fully sweet, and in the dry styles, it is rotgipfler that has the edge in terms of palate weight with spicy and tropical fruit, zierfandler being a little lighter, perhaps with a degree more elegance, and some  nutty character.  

Traisental, Donauland, Vienna

These are the less well-known vineyard areas of Lower Austria, and mostly they hug the south bank of the river.  Grüner veltliner is the predominant variety in Traisental.  Donauland is cultivating its own niche. Plentiful loess soils grow mostly grüner veltliner, riesling and pinot blanc and Bernhard Ott produces some good examples. Much of the wine from Vienna vineyards goes to supply the popular Heurige bars in the city.